I so want to start the week with encouraging words, but as I sat in my quiet living room searching for those words, my mind was distracted by the weekend news of riots in France by “demonstrators” who seem to share ideology in common with the organizations that back the mostly peaceful gatherings that were occurring on this side of the Atlantic. It feels inevitable to me that we are creeping back towards the sort of dystopia that hung over the US of A from 2021 to 2024.
Lest you jump to conclusions, let me hasten to add that I am no big fan of the incumbent administration these days, either. The lesser of two evils is still evil.
But I find myself contemplating how I might cope with what seems to be an inevitable descent into even more unpleasant times, given my preference for liberty and peace.
“Love God and love your neighbor” is the law I live. How do I interact with those who mean to tear down the country and rebuild it in their image? “Love your neighbor as yourself.” And what about those who invade and attempt to close churches and synagogues, or censor dissent, as they have done before? “Love your enemies.”
This is why the most important commandment is “Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind” — because there are some people who are hard to love without divine intervention, people who are filled with hate and have no objection to violence. We cannot defeat them by hating them and countering their violence with violence, however; we must meet them with peace and with love. Doing so is the equivalent of heaping burning coals on their heads, and they quite possibly will lash out with intensified violence, like a child in mid-tantrum. We restrain the child to prevent further damage, but we act in love.
That’s easy for me to say; I am miles from the epicenter. Lord grant me the strength and the patience to meet the haters with love, should I ever encounter them.
